Resolved Sandiganbayan cases hit 22-year high

For the first time in 22 years, the Sandiganbayan has breached the one-thousand mark in its disposal of cases for the year 2017.

According to the Judicial Records Division’s statistics as of Dec. 31, a total of 1,264 cases were resolved in 2017 — the highest since 1995, when 2,652 cases were disposed of.

Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang called 2017 “a banner year for the court” because of its quicker pace in resolving corruption cases.

About half the cases resolved in 2017, or 616, were actually disposed of in just the last four months of the year, as the Supreme Court’s revised guidelines for the continuous trial of cases took effect in September.

The 2017 figure also nearly matched the disposal rate achieved in the previous four years combined, or 1,404 for 2013 to 2016.

The total resolved cases in 2017 is equivalent to 23 percent of the backlog of 5,493 pending cases. —Vince F. Nonato